The present invention relates to conductive polymeric materials and a means of producing the same.
More specifically, the instant invention concerns an undoped semiconducting polymeric material which is composed of a plurality of parallel sheets of regular two-dimensional networks of polydiacetylene and polyacetylene chains interconnected by a plurality of spacer units. In the preferred embodiment the spacer units are composed of a plurality of methylene units, with the number of such units ranging from 5 to 8. The polymeric material is preferably formed by polymerizing a monomer having the structural formula HC.tbd.C--(CH.sub.2).sub.n --C.tbd.C--C.tbd.C--(CH.sub.2).sub.n --C.tbd.CH, wherein n has a value of 5 to 8.
It is well known in the art that certain acetylenic compounds can be rendered conductive by means of doping. For example, it is known that various polyacetylenes can be doped with certain materials, such as iodine, to cause them to exhibit a reasonable degree of conductivity.
However, the prior art is devoid of any teaching or suggestion as to how to produce a conductive polymerized undoped acetylenic material (as used herein the term conductive is meant to include semiconductive).
Accordingly, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide an acetylenic polymeric material which is characterized by its relative high degree of intrinsic electrical conductivity.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method of producing an acetylenic polymeric material which is characterized by its relative high degree of intrinsic electrical conductivity.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a reading of the following specification and claims.